Officials consider downtown traffic safety in Ashburnham

Friday

ASHBURNHAM — There have been concerns brought by residents to members of the Board of Selectmen about traffic in the downtown area, excessive speed and danger for pedestrian traffic.

During a recent selectmen hearing, Chairman John Mulhall said the board has taken walks downtown with the Economic Development Commission and have listened to concerns about speed and safety of traffic coming down Route 12 from Winchendon and coming up from Fitchburg. The community has expressed anxieties over the intersection of Route 101 and Route 12 located by Brother’s Pizza.

Last year the Economic Development Commission requested that some parking at the intersection be minimized so travelers could have clear sight lines.

Police Chief Loring Barrett was asked to provide his opinion on what traffic flow is like at the intersection. Mulhall asked if there is a problem that indicates whether the town should take further steps.

“Does the data prove that out? Mulhall asked.

The chief came prepared with printed materials that provided statistics from 2018. He said there were 10 motor vehicle crashes from High Street down to Water Street last year. He explained that a lot were minor crashes and some may have occurred in a parking lot.

“Of those 10, there was only one that was a serious accident,” he said. “That was right at Water Street. It was a head-on.” Barrett said one person was transported to the hospital.

Out of 10 crashes, 17 vehicles were involved.

Barrett said studies were done on Main Street as far as checking speeds using a system the department can mount on a telephone pole that does not look like a radar.

“It doesn’t say radar on it, so people don’t really know it’s there,” said Barrett. “It gives us some information and data that we look at and see if there needs to be more enforcement.”

The system provides data on the traffic count so the Police Department can see when the roads are busier. Barret said the system produces 50 pages of data the department can look at. The unit has been placed in two different locations, one by Water Street and one by Chapel Street, to detect cars coming downhill to Main Street.

“It kind of gave us a true figure of vehicles traveling both ways coming in from Fitchburg or from Winchendon,” said Barrett.

The chief said the speed limit posted is 30 mph, and the enforcement tolerance has a 10-mile gap.

Barrett said the majority of the vehicles were going 20-35 mph. He told the board that some of the higher readings could have been “ghost readings” caused by wind where something blew in front of the radar unit, but he added that people have been stopped for speeding on Main Street.

Barrett said 148 vehicles were stopped in the area in 2018, and 81 citations written with fines.

The area of concern is 2,700 feet, more than a quarter-mile, making it long enough to be covered by a recent change in law.

Barrett said that in 2016, Massachusetts law changed where previously only the state Department Of Transportation could alter the speed limits on town roads. He said now there is an option for Town Meeting to accept sections of the law, giving the selectmen an opportunity to change speed limits in certain areas. One of those areas is a commercial area, as well as another thickly settled district. The state allows for 30 mph in both.

“It allows the town to reduce that speed limit if they so choose through the Board of Selectmen to 25 mph. In order to do that we would need to put that on the annual Town Meeting in May, and the town would have to accept that chapter and section,” said Barrett.

Barrett advised that driver awareness signs work well, adding that he is a big fan of them.

“The minute people see those things come on, they hit the brakes right away. It wakes them up,” he said.

Vehicle crashes have been reduced from 12 per year to about one a year at the Corey Hill Road-Route 101 intersection.

The driver awareness sign units cost around $5,000 apiece, but Barret believes they are well worth the cost.

Mulhall asked how safe pedestrians are on Main Street.

Barrett said he would like to see no parking on Main Street at all because the street is too narrow, leaving little room for pedestrians.